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I apologize for my absence last week, but things were really out of my
control. The destination-online webserver is no more, so I was left
without web space; as you know, my university account is on a machine
devoted to research and people will notice the traffic that this page
draws. In any case, Anthony Shubert has been kind enough to give me
some space on the www.withauthority.com web site, so this will be my
new home.
There will not be any updates for the next two weeks, as I will be on
vacation far away from net access.
There's a lot to recap after missing last week, so forgive me if I
talk about things that are now a little dated.
I'm looking for a copy of the ECW PPV. I would like an original or
first generation copy at worst (maybe somebody taped two copies on
daisy-chained VCRs?). Drop me an e-mail if you are interested in a
trade; I won't get back to you until after the vacation.
Finally, I'm going to start playing around with animations on my web
pages. I'll likely be trying out animated gifs and some java stuff in
the near future. I didn't have time to do anything fancy for today,
but I did include a four-frame Rey Misterio tope. Nothing too crazy
yet...
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Picture of the Week
Here's a picture of Sable.
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- WCW had Road Wild on 08/09/97. There really wasn't much good about
the show on paper going in, but it did seem to promise good matches
with Diamond Dallas Page against Curt Hennig, Steiners vs. Nash &
Hall, Ric Flair vs. Syxx, along with one potentially great match
featuring Chris Jericho vs. Alex Wright. But the choice of venue
really takes away from the show. On the one hand, they had some
spectacular shots from the air. On the other hand, the high flying
wrestlers were crippled by the ring set-up. The wrestling was weak
enough to make this a thumbs down show, but I think it was largely due
to the ring set-up limiting the booking of the guys that can fly (most
of whom didn't even get booked for the show). Results:
* Harlem Heat beat Buff Bagwell & Scott Norton: this was a actually
a good opener, designed to get Jacquelyn over as Heat's new
manager/valet. The problem is that the match quality didn't get
much higher than this match. Finish saw Norton get pinned.
* Konnan beat Rey Misterio Jr. in a Mexican death match: it was good
for what it was, but this is not the kind of match that I want to
see Rey Misterio work. WCW has totally screwed up everything with
Misterio, a shame since he really could have been something, IMO.
He's still great to watch, but the promotion has no idea how to
book him.
* Chris Benoit & Steve McMichael beat Jeff Jarrett & Dean Malenko in
an elimination tag match: stupid angle number one. Jarrett avoided
the ring for a long time before tagging in and holding McMichael
on top of him to get himself pinned. This left Malenko to fend for
himself, which didn't last long. There were some wonderful
exchanges between Malenko and Benoit. At least Malenko won't get
saddled with Jarrett as a partner. The plans were to put him
together with Benoit, but plans change by the day.
* Alex Wright beat Chris Jericho to retain the Cruiserweight title:
this was still the best match on the show, but it was not the
great match it seemed like it could be. The were hindered by the
ring set-up and were a little sloppy. Wright shows a lot, IMO, and
deserves to be packed in with the good workers.
* Ric Flair beat Syxx: Flair looked pretty weak throughout the
match, making it a sad experience for me. He ended up crotching
Syxx and getting the pin.
* Curt Hennig beat Diamond Dallas Page: the biggest disappointment
on the show. Despite the very good matches he's been involved in,
I'm still not so convinced about Diamond Dallas Page being in the
upper echelon. This match did nothing to help me see the light.
They worked very poorly together, flubbing a lot of moves. I'll
get flamed for this, but it was like watching ECW. Page juiced,
although everybody claimed it was hardway. That didn't help
either, since the cameras then pulled back to the mountain tops to
play down the blood. I definitely don't want gruesome close-ups of
gaping, bloody wounds, but I don't see why they have to take the
other extreme.
* Giant beat Randy Savage: this was a nothing match, only good
because of the clean finish.
* Steiners beat Kevin Nash & Scott Hall by DQ: after all of the crap
that the Steiners have endured thanks to the chaotic WCW booking
of Kevin Sullivan, surely Terry Taylor was planning to build
towards a title switch now that the Steiners had Ted DiBiase in
their corner. Even in the show opener, the new manager (Jacquelyn)
played a key role in earning the win for her team. Well, the
Observer reports that the plans were indeed to change the tag
belts in this match, but that Nash & Hall argued strongly against
doing it and were placated. Sigh, it's funny that as North
American wrestling finally improves, both in WCW and the WWF, the
promotions are increasingly saddled with huge egos that don't do
what is right for business.
* Hulk Hogan beat Lex Luger to regain the WCW Title: Another example
of egos. Surely, after the great job they did showing WCW
celebrate on Monday Nitro when Luger won the title, they should
have prolonged the good feelings here and continued to get the
title over. Worse yet, the finish was booked at the last second
(not by Terry Taylor) and featured the commentators being fooled
for the tenth time by a fake Sting. How stupid are they? It was
great the first time and should never have been a PPV finish again
thereafter. The PPV ended on a really sour note.
Rey dives, animated gif With all of that said, I'm not so sure that
Road Wild was any worse than SummerSlam the week before. I suppose
that the Owen Hart vs. Steve Austin match was shooting to be the best
match on either show, but the injury near the finish hurt that match,
leaving the shows approximately equal when it comes to match quality.
Still, I gave SummerSlam a milds thumbs up and Road Wild a thumbs
down. Why? The finishes on Road Wild were more atrocious and WCW came
out of the PPV with poor matches on the horizon, while the WWF
situation improved by having Bret Hart take the belt from the
Undertaker.
- WCW had a Clash of Champions tonight live on WTBS. Here's a rundown:
* Steve McMichael beat Jeff Jarrett to win the US Title. McMichael
is nothing as a wrestler, so this is a disappointing result. Eddy
Guerrero interfered, with the intention of helping Jarrett, but
his actions backfired.
* Raven pinned Stevie Richards after a DDT. Raven wanted a no DQ
match. They tried hard, but it was a sloppy, short match.
* Alex Wright beat Ultimo Dragon to win the TV Title. Earlier in the
show, they ran a live interview with Wright to establish him as
the heel for the match; I guess they weren't sure that the
Nashville fans wouldn't decide to boo the Japanese guy. This was a
pretty good match. Apparently, according to a sign directly at
ringside, Sting lives in my basement. Alex won with a German
suplex after a good final few minutes. This was a strong match.
* Chris Jericho beat Eddy Guerrero to retain the Cruiserweight
Title. This was another strong, although short, match. Eddy is
great in his new role. I watched some older New Japan stuff this
past week with Eddy working as Black Tiger and am pretty stoked at
how great the guy is. I was disappointed that they didn't switch
this belt too. But Eddy did attack Chris after the match,
presumably to set up a longer (!) match for an upcoming PPV.
* Psicosis & Silver King & Villanos IV & V beat Lizmark Jr. & Hector
Garza & Super Calo & Juventud Guerrera when Psicosis pinned Calo
after a top rope leg drop. This was a super match. The sequence of
topes was great, especially Juventud's dive, which saw him try to
reach the ceiling again. It was great that they gave Psicosis the
pin.
* Ric Flair & Curt Hennig beat Syxx & Konnan when Hennig pinned
Konnan with a fisherman suplex. I liked that they dropped any
cutesy name for the finish and went with the traditional Japanese
name. Match was so-so. There was a confusing spot when Hennig
accidentally tossed syxx into Flair's knee, as if to set up a
screwy finish and a turn of some sort, but it was just a swerve.
Hennig refused to say whether he was in the Horsemen.
* Scott Hall & Randy Savage beat Lex Luger & Diamond Dallas Page
when Hall pinned Luger after DDP had accidentally hit Luger with
the Diamond Cutter. The whole match was a heat segment on Page,
who finally hit the hot tag so Luger could come in and deliver
weak clotheslines. The finish was actually pretty good. This was
turned into a title match, which made little sense. Afterwards the
NWO celebrated, but the microphone cut out, replaced by a strange
droning sound. Sting appeared in the rafters with a vulture on his
arm and a kid's voice chimed in talking about deceit burning up
Sting's soul and requiring retribution. It was a total rip-off of
James O'Barr and the Crow, but, heck, they've been ripping off
that character for a long time anyhow. The lights turned off and
when they came back on the vulture was on the ring ropes, with the
NWO acting scared. Almost as hokey as any Undertaker sketch.
Overall, the show has to get a thumbs up. There were three good
matches, and the show never dragged, except possibly during the Dinner
& A Movie segment. Still, it seemed better than the PPV!
RAW over the past two weeks has had very good main events, but not
much of note underneath. Last week, Shawn Michaels faced Mankind in a
spot-filled match that was pretty darned good. Rick Rude debuted as
Michaels' bodyguard, getting involved in the finish. All of this was
pretty good. After dumping Ahmed Johnson from the NOD, they took in
Rocky Maivia. Everything involving the NOD, DOA, and Boricuas is
incredibly sloppy with no selling.
This past Monday, the main event featured Shawn Michaels & Hunter
Hearst Helmsley against Undertaker & Mankind. That latter team is
pretty unbelievable given the story lines of recent years, but when
the talent roster is thin and many people are injured, you've got to
improvise. It was a good match largely because of Michaels'
performance. The Observer reports that Michaels' knee is worse than
anyone thought and that he'll only be used on major shows because he
will likely not be able to work a house show schedule. Anyway, in the
ring he was absolutely fantastic. The finish saw him whack Undertaker
with a tin foil chair shot with Undertaker blading in plain site of
any fan who is slightly in the know. This was made embarrassingly
worse by them replaying the chair shot and blading in slow motion
afterwards. It was reminiscent of the 1985 20/20 piece where they
showed punches not connecting in slow motion replays.
Taka Michinoku was sadly missing. Apparently, Great Sasuke has
returned to Japan with no mention of the WWF, since they didn't offer
him a deal in the end. They did offer Taka a contract, but he has not
signed as yet. The match against Brian Christopher hurts Taka's
credibility, although that's something that could be quickly rectified
with a more balanced match. Christopher still has no place in the
lightheavyweight division.
Brian Pillman continues to lose while wearing Marlena's dress. But
they've revealed the direction of this angle. Pillman claimed that
Dakota, the daughter of Goldust & Marlena, was really his lovechild.
He challenged Goldust to a match with the stipulation that Pillman
will retire if he loses but will get Marlena for 30 days if he wins.
Marlena agreed to the match, leading one to think that she wants to go
with Pillman. It's been a while since we've seen that angle in one of
the major promotions, um, since, oh yeah, Debra McMichael turned on
Steve. The match is set for Ground Zero.
Ken Shamrock beat Sultan this week. I received some criticism last
time out when I suggested that the WWF has completely blown it with
Shamrock. I stand by that. When you see what New Japan has managed to
do with Naoya Ogawa and others before him or what other Japanese
promotions do to protect the guy with the unique, legit fighting
style, it's frustrating to see the WWF book Shamrock like he's just
another wrestler (which he sadly is now). The funny thing is that the
WWF had this guy who they could have kept isolated and used to get
over submissions as a legit way of beating top stars, thus creating a
way to reduce injuries and work more restholds with meaning into their
matches, but they blew it. Meanwhile, WCW has nobody that could be
promoted as having anywhere near the legit submission knowledge that
Shamrock has and, yet, through determined booking, they are doing a
better job of getting the tap out and various submissions over.
- The Observer reports that the groupies that jump Dude Love are
actually Dude's wife and a former girlfriend of Shawn Michaels.
- Reports are that TSN may carry WCW Monday Nitro on midnight
Thursdays. I've e-mailed them requesting confirmation of the rumour,
but they have yet to respond. CHCH, the Southern Ontario station that
now airs the butchered one-hour version of Nitro, will be dropping the
show in September.
- New Japan Pro-Wrestling had a major show at the Nagoya Dome on
08/10/97. Quick results:
* Shinya Hashimoto beat Hiroyoshi Tenzan to retain the IWGP Title.
The match was originally supposed to see Masa Chono get the title
shot, but Chono injured his ankle working the WCW World Wide
tapings and has had to pull out of matches.
* Manabu Nakanishi & Satoshi Kojima lost the IWGP Tag Titles to
Kensuke Sasaki & Kazuo Yamazaki
* Shinjiro Otani beat El Samurai to win the J Crown
* Tatsumi Fujinami beat Riki Choshu
* Great Muta beat Naoya Ogawa (Antonio Inoki referee)
* Don Frye beat Cal Worsham (both are UFC veterans)
* Koji Kanemoto beat Jushin Liger
- The Observer reports that Steve Regal may be history with WCW after
causing a lot of trouble on his flight back from the G-1 Climax
tournament in New Japan.
- Long-time members of the newsgroup will remember Curtis Desjardins,
who posted as Fluffy the Wonder Bunny for a while. Although I haven't
heard back from him, the lucky bugger was planning on attending the
08/20/97 All Japan Women Budokan show. The show featured Aja Kong
going to a half-hour draw against Manami Toyota in Aja's retirement
match. Aja will continue to wrestle freelance with the various
promotions in Japan. In a devastating blow, IMO, Kyoko Inoue announced
that she would also work freelance like Aja. Yumiko Hotta defeated
Kyoko to win the WWWA Title. What was once the single greatest
promotion in Japan has crumbled due to an inability to create new
stars who could measure up to the steller crop from the late 1980s.
- In very sad news, Plum Mariko, a regular with JWP in Japan died on
August 16th. A day earlier, she had wrestled a typical tag match,
taking some severe bumps. She died from brain damage. This is the
first time a wrestle in Japan has died from injuries credited to a
wrestling match; she was only 29 years old.
- - RAW 08/18 with a 4.0 rating against a 3.2 rating.
The detailed ratings are a click away.
- The PPV buy rates of the past six months (year or so) show that the
WWF has an average buy rate of 0.59 (0.52) and average gross of
$1.51-million ($1.32-million), while WCW has an average buy rate of
0.69 (0.67) and average gross of $2.12-million ($2.02-million).
The WCW numbers a bit lower than last week. The inflated Bash at the
Beach buy rate was not corroborated by independent sources.
The details as they stand are available.
- New Japan has a major show in Yokohama on 08/31/97. Partial line-up
has
* Shinya Hashimoto vs. Kensuke Saskie for the IWGP Title
* Shinjiro Otani vs. Koji Kanemoto for the J Crown
* Naoya Ogawa vs. Scott Norton
* Riki Choshu & Genichiru Tenryu & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Great Muta &
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Hiro Saito
- All Japan has a show at Budokan on 09/06/97. Partial line-up has
* Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Jun Akiyama for the Triple Crown
* Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Kenta Kobashi & Kentaro Shiga
- The WWF has Ground Zero on 09/07/97. Line-up has:
* Bret Hart vs. Patriot for the WWF Title
* Shawn Michaels vs. Undertaker
* Steve Austin & Dude Love vs. Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith vs.
Godwinns vs. Legion of Doom
* Brian Pillman vs. Goldust (Pillman quits if he doesn't win, wins
Marlena for 30 days if he does win)
* Brian Christopher vs. Scott Putski
* Savio Vega vs. Faarooq vs. Crush
They've been trying to give the Patriot some credibility as a title
contender by giving him pins on top guys. It's what they should do, of
course, and I really did like the Patriot when he worked in All Japan,
but he's a lot different in the US, in WCW a while back and now in the
WWF. I think when he gives interviews he rubs me the wrong way, and
it's more than the jingoistic stuff he spews because of the current
story line.
- WCW has Fall Brawl on 09/14/97.
- FMW has a show in Kawasaki Stadium on 9/28/97. They have announced
that Ken Shamrock will face Vader.
- The WWF has a PPV on 10/05/97.
- WCW has Halloween Havoc on 10/26/97. Tentative line-up has:
* Hulk Hogan vs. Roddy Piper
* Giant vs. Kevin Nash
* Diamond Dallas Page vs. Randy Savage
- The WWF has Survivor Series on 11/09/97.
- WCW has World War III on 11/23/97.
- FMW has a major show in Kawasaki Stadium on 11/28/97.
- The WWF has a PPV on 12/07/97.
- WCW has Starrcade on 12/28/97.
- Videos: I have posted something about the availability of videos. If
you missed it, I'll send it to you in e-mail upon request.
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Thanks to: Masaki Aso.
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